Workshop start

Beyond the boundary

New Topics

Keynote personalities

Visiting critics and lecturers will give us thier opinion to generate new debates

Project leaders

An international high level group to lead the projects

The architecture workshop “Beyond the boundary” is an opportunity to investigate some unsolved urban issues in the territory of Prato. Starting from the area where is situated the building called Ex Banci – currently a symbol of urban degradation – and from the axis of the “declassata”, a linear system that crosses the city and that represent a key hinge for potential reconfiguration of the Ex Banci area, the workshop aims a general reflection about the wayss of correlation of these different themes, as well as those concerning a larger territorial system.

The goal is to identify possible solutions in order to build future scenarios where, organically with wider development, the Ex Banci area becomes such a new propeller tool towards the urban and territorial transformations. It’s imperative to try to manage these aims synergically with the desired urban transformations and regeneration dynamics, that will invest the linear system of declassata and, possibly, the whole territory of Prato. This reflection, as an alternative to the currently state of declassata and its surrounding architectural and urban heritage, will aim to propose declassata as a complementary value to the management and development of a territory with a high geopolitical complexity and difficult to understand. By intervening on the urban system of declassata of Prato, discovering its socio-economic attractions, is possible to give a new the role to the city of Prato as an international hub, strengthen by a territorial system that supports its strategic position and its potential intermodal value.

The topics of the workshop will focus on the rethinking of the Ex Banci area and its programmatic transformation, into a wider regeneration strategy, which will have to cover the whole linear system of declassata, related to the urban scale problems and their possible influence on the architectural and territorial issues.

The International Architecture Workshop BEYOUND THE BOUDARY wants to promote the culture of the project as a tool to improve people’s lives through a medium to long-term vision that, if activated, can change the future development of the city in a concrete and decisive way. In order to make the city sustainable, is necessary to stimulate those actions capable of not harming future generations. It means building scenarios able to go beyond the boundaries, which are not usually taken into account by low strategies.

Program of activities

The workshop will take place in two section: one of design and research; one of critical-theoretic training and debate.

The first section will be focused on the design experience aimed to propose urban renewal solutions on the areas covered by the workshop. There will be 5 work groups formed by students and / or architects.

Each group will be led by a project leade who will handle the design activity.

The final results of the workshop will be reviewed by Visiting Critics, invited among important designers or academics, as very high profile personalities in Italy and Europe, who will critic on the ongoing work and will participate in a Grand Jury that will evaluate the final results of each team.

The second section will be focused on a series of Lectures held by leading experts and personalities in the international contemporary architectural scenery, who contributed significantly to the advancement of research and of architectural and urban design production

Preliminary Design document

Visions and strategic topics

Introduction.

The preliminary document aims to provide the needful information for the design of the sites interested by the workshop. The sites concern the areas around the metropolitan communication axis Florence-Prato-Pistoia called “declassata” and the industrial area now called exBanci.

Strategic Goals

The projects will address the theme proposed by the workshop on two different scales; One of the territorial scale, the other on the urban and on the architectural scale.

The declassata is an infrastructure that overrides the local and communal sectors to reach the regional, metropolitan areas. Here is possible to play the fundamental game on the revival of those urban strategies necessary for Prato, in order to find the main role into the socio-cultural-economic context that has always had through the manufacturing district. But a convincing strategy must, first of all, take into account the well-being linked not only to oncoming needs but above all to its original needs.

The ex Banci was a jewel of industrial typology innovation. Today it is no longer, but its refurbishment, linked to training strategies able to attract new investors, can make it a new catalyst center where public and private can find those synergies useful to create new opportunities.

The workshop proposals will allow the areas affected by the project to finally dialogue with the rest of the city, with the historic center, with existing green areas, with abandoned agricultural and industrial areas.

The projects that will be elaborated must have the power to change the vision and perception not only of what will be planned, but also of everything linked to it. A new boundary, the focus of vitality and transformations.

The Declassata

It is the structural axis and the fulcrum of the whole system. The proposed vision starts from the identification of the limits of intervention and of the definition of the four sections that structure the declassata . The territorial limits of planning survey are the two toll booth areas, thought as the gates of the city of Prato and of the declassata. From these elements, the proposed strategy is based on some invariant issues that open two possible scenarios, related to the future vision of the declassata but in general of the entire city.

The areas next to the two toll booths could be used as hubs for the whole system.

The two Hubs have two different connotations that undergo few variations in the two scenarios. However, both should be characterized by high density, to allow the concentration of the buildings in correspondence of the gates of the city, avoiding the overloading of the center. At the same time, in these areas are located intermodal junctions, in order to encourage diversified mobility toward the central areas of the city.

Intermediate sections are characterized by radically different calling.

Ex Banci

The Ex Banci will have to be object of a reflection deeper and careful because of its architectural quality and the strategic position it possesses. The reuse and regeneration hypothesis of the Ex Banci moves on multiple possibilities. First, the proximity of the Ex Banci with the Pecci Museum certainly suggest the definition of a program interacting with the Art Industry. However, the economic sustainability of an intervention on the complex must be supported by other activities that allow other public and private investment and a use not limited of some time slots.

For this reason, a functional mix must be envisaged combining activities related to the art field, with those of creative, manufacturing, professional, exhibition and residential sectors. Relating to the latter one, it is appropriate to differentiate the types of housing envisaged.

On the one hand, it shuold be appropriate to increase the culture of integration through hosting centers, on the other hand to provide a hospitality system for young people who are gravitating around the world of art and education. For this reason, a policy of proportional increasing of volumes could be implemented.

An innovative possibility would be to transform the whole complex into a citadel of energy by combining with the foregoing, providing the pavilions with appropriate technologies for the production of energy to be introduced into smart grids. The expected types of intervention should be free and derive from the interpretation of the architectural and urban principles own of the complex. The conservation of its primary values will have to guide the design choices and consequently the criteria for maintaining or deleting parts of the settlement.

Two possible scenarios

The strategic vision of the entire axis of the declassata can be implemented according to two different scenarios, related to the timeline of realizations and to the city visions that the city’s government apparatus intends to follow.

1 – Urban and Territorial Infrastructure

A first scenario foresees short-term transformations, confirming for the declassata its role as urban and extra-urban infrastructure and enhancing its reach. This scenario should envisage the possibility of assigning a system of parallel green corridors to the declassata, along which to slide a green mobility, concentrating the most of car flow within the declassata.

2 – Ecological corridor

A second scenario, which could only take place with a medium-term management policy, follows a more ecological vision of the city. This scenario, in fact, involves the transformation of the declassata into a green corridor, turning the axes intersecting it into green sub-corridors.

Accommodation
Alternatives

Students will have the possibility to book – through to the workshop organization – a room in affiliated structures. For any further information, please email to info@beyondtheboundary.it

PLACES TO EAT

During the workshop lunches are planned in affiliated restaurants for an average price of 5-7 € per meal. A few days before the workshop starting, a detailed program will be delivered to students.

Even for dinners there are some affiliated restaurants with average prices of 7-10 € per dinner. Students sleeping in the above mentioned affiliated facilities, can themselves prepare the dinners using the kitchens of the apartments for free.

Every selected restaurant offers at least a vegetarian option, both for the lunch and the dinner. For any further information, please email to info@beyondtheboundary.it